solace, partner, treasure

a friend is in prosperity a pleasure, a solace in adversity, in grief a comfort, in joy a merry companion, at all times another "I," in all places the express image of mine own person, insomuch that I cannot tell whether the immortal Gods have bestowed any gift upon mortal men either more noble or more necessary than friendship.

Is there anything in the world to be reputed, I will not say compared, to friendship? Can any treasure in this transitory pilgrimage be of more value than a friend, in whose bosom thou mayest sleep secure without fear, whom thou mayest make partner of all thy secrets without suspicion of fraud, and partaker of all thy misfortune without mistrust of fleeting, who will accompt thy bale his bane, thy mishap his misery, the pricking of thy finger the piercing of his heart?

--Lyly, Euphues (1578)